Go for Broke exhibit travels to West Oahu

From March 31 to April 11, the University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu Library will host Go for Broke: Japanese American Soldiers Fighting on Two Fronts, a traveling exhibit commemorating the role of Japanese American soldiers during World War II.

Go for Broke features photographs, oral history excerpts, and facsimiles of historic documents about the 100th, 442nd and 522nd units, and famed Military Intelligence Service. The exhibit was originally created in 1980 through the efforts of more than 100 Nisei (second generation Japanese American) veterans in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. It was originally shown at the Presidio of San Francisco and toured throughout the United States for nearly 10 years.

Curated by veteran historian Eric Saul, whose Japanese American exhibits were featured at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, Go for Broke preserves the legacy of Japanese American soldiers’ World War II experience for generations to come. It explains the impact of the Nisei soldiers’ war record on the postwar civil rights of Japanese Americans and how it contributed to the successful passing of House Resolution 442 that resulted in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

Saul will give a brief overview of the exhibit at the opening on Monday, March 31, where UH West Oʻahu Chancellor Rockne Freitas will untie a maile lei at 10:30 a.m.

Go for Broke is sponsored by the Nisei Veterans Legacy Center and will be on display on the second floor of the UH West Oʻahu Library from March 31–April 11. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Following its stay at the UH West Oʻahu Library, Go for Broke will be on display at the Honolulu Hale (City Hall) Exhibition Hall from April 14-25 and at the Maui Nisei Veterans Memorial Center on Maui from May 1 – June 13.